Texas Senate passes abortion bill

Dems vow to challenge it in court

Abortion rights advocates fill the rotunda of the State Capitol as the Senate nears the vote on Friday night, July 12, 2013. Texas senators were wrapping up debate on sweeping abortion restrictions Friday night and were poised to vote on a measure after weeks of protests. (AP Photo/Tamir Kalifa) (Tamir Kalifa)

AUSTIN -- The Texas Senate late Friday passed a controversial bill that places heavy new regulations on abortion.

Mostly along party lines, the chamber voted 19 to 11 to approve the measure. State Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. of Brownsville was the lone Democrat to vote with the Republicans.

The House passed the bill earlier on the week, so it will go now to Gov. Rick Perry for his signature.

Opponents say similar legislation has been held unconstitutional elsewhere and promised the Texas bill will soon be in court.

With the roar of protesters outside the chamber rising and ebbing, the Senate debated a bill similar to ones passed by GOP-controlled legislatures in six other states. But given Texas' size, its passage here is especially significant.

REPORTER

Marty Schladen

There were a few disruptions in advance of the vote. At 8:25 p.m. El Paso time, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst stopped proceedings when a woman cabled herself to a brass rail in the gallery. He restarted the session 12 minutes later after troopers used bolt cutters to remove the cable. She and two other protesters were removed.

The bill requires doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, limit where and when women may take abortion-inducing pills, and ban most abortions after 20 weeks.

It also requires that facilities performing abortions upgrade to standards required of "ambulatory surgical centers" -- meaning many would have to widen hallways, enlarge surgical suites, add locker rooms, install backup generators and make other changes.

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More than 60 state troopers ringed the Senate gallery as, one after another, senators gave impassioned speeches, held up sonograms and told stories of friends and family members who might be affected by the legislation.

Republican sponsors of the bill said that while they oppose abortion, a constitutionally protected right, the intent of the bill is to protect women and their babies.

"I can't for the life of me understand why we wouldn't want safer conditions for abortions," Dewhurst said Thursday in advance of Friday's session.

But Democratic opponents to the bill said it was just a ruse to make abortions less available.

Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, seemed to confirm that in his closing statement.

"It's about taking the life of an innocent baby," said Patrick, who has announced plans to run for lieutenant governor.

He later said, "When we take a life, we're destroying the image of God."

Sen. Jose Rodriguez, D-El Paso, said the Texas Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Texas Hospital Association opposed the bill.

"It's political medicine with little medical or scientific basis," he said.

Rodriguez accused Patrick and other Republicans of imposing "faith-based" legislation on Texans.

State Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, became a national political figure June 25 with her 11-hour filibuster that helped kill an earlier version of the bill.

On Friday, she asked the bill's Senate sponsor, Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, if he could document an instance in which a woman undergoing an abortion would have had a better outcome if it had been performed in an ambulatory surgical center.

"I have not had a documented instance come to me," Hegar said.

Earlier in the debate, Hegar said it would cost abortion clinics about $250,000 to retrofit to qualify as ambulatory surgical centers. Rodriguez said the estimates he's heard place the cost between $1 million and $3 million.

Opponents of House Bill 2 said that if it takes effect, 29 of Texas' 36 licensed abortion clinics -- including the two in El Paso -- will be forced to close.

Hegar disputed that. He said abortion providers had ample money and time to upgrade before the bill would take effect in September 2014.

"I think an increase in standards is important," he said.

Davis questioned why early-term abortions that are induced by pills, so-called "medical abortions," need to be conducted in surgical centers. Hegar repeated that he believed that women deserved the best facilities.

The Republican majority in the Senate turned back 20 amendments offered by Democrats. They seemed designed to show that Republicans were not concerned with women's health or good science.

Republicans suggested that since the amendments would require concurrence by the House, they were designed to drag out the process until a Democratic filibuster might again be a viable strategy.

One, offered by Rodriguez, would have deleted what he says are false claims made to women under an earlier law. Pamphlets distributed under the 2003 Women's Right to Know Act tell women contemplating abortions that they might lead to breast cancer -- a claim the Rodriguez cited numerous authorities as calling false.

Another, offered by State Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, would have allowed abortions between 20 and 24 weeks of pregnancy in cases of rape and incest. He said victims -- many of them minors -- are reluctant to report such incidents, leading to delays in seeking abortions.

Many observers said passage of the bill was essential to Dewhurst's political survival. On June 25, with a special legislative session in its last day, an earlier bill died as Davis mounted an 11-hour filibuster and protesters disrupted proceedings as the special session expired.

Dewhurst's Republican challengers for lieutenant governor criticized him for mismanaging the issue. They said it mobilized abortion-rights supporters and it elevated Davis into a national figure.

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